Seaside climate Florida
 

Having lived near Lake Michigan, we are accustomed to it being "cooler by the lake". While it can be sunny and 70 just inland a bit, lakeside can be foggy and 55. I'm wondering if this same holds true on the east coast of Florida, Vero Beach area in particular. Would we enjoy warmer winter temps if we were to stay inland rather than the barrier islands?

Having lived at the shore at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, there is a weather pattern that I am not sure totally works on the coast. Lake Michigan is always cold so when the land heats up the hot air rises and pulls the cool air over the lake on the land. That works about 90% of the time.

In our experience with beach property along the east coast of Florida that is not as common. You can get on shore breezes in the afternoon that are cooling but not as frequent. Obviously if you are inland you will always be warmer. And a barrier island will always be cooler because it is surrounded by colder water.

Our experience with wintering in Florida is that if you want consistent warmer winter weather, more further south around Miami and the Keys. Mid Florida and north can be chilly in Dec, Jan, Feb.

Anyplace from Martin County south, on the East Coast, has been reliably warm in winter. There was not one (non rainy) day in the last 4 winters that it was too cold for me to swim outdoors, in a heated pool, in Palm Beach County.

The short answer is "not by much."

There's not a great deal of difference in the average winter temps between Vero and, for instance, Orlando. I think what you might find is that when the temps dip inland, the dip probably won't be so drastic in Vero because of the moderating effect of the ocean.

The result is that you won't see the 15-degree differences, or anything near that, that you might see between Lake MI and inland.

It can be most uncomfortably hot on the beaches here, too. I've been on a beach in September, feeling a wave of hot air that just about blistered my lungs. That's just weird to me, as I grew up on the Pacific coast. We live in the Orlando area, and if we go to see relatives in the Jupiter area in January, for example, it is markedly warmer. But, that's more a function of just being farther south and not by the water.

We live ON one of those so-called "barrier islands" in Fort Lauderdale in an oceanfront home. We pretty much routinely have some sort of breeze daily.

Yes, it will be humid.

Here's ONE temp chart that seems pretty much "correct." But I do not know if this is an average from the various weather stations in town or not.

Here's a chart for Ft. Pierce:

http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate...tates/usfl0156 which is about 110 miles north.

Sorry, the Fort Lauderdale chart:

http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate...tates/usfl0149

I live on the east coast, central Fl and we have had a few cool mornings but never turned the heat on this pass winter or many recently. I find the temp is cooler on the coast in the summer and warmer in the winter than it is in Orlando. We get breezes but is humid.

I lived on Lake Superior many years ago and the lake temps kept us warmer in the winter. Cooler in the summer.

As a follow-on, you speak of "warmer" temps. Be aware that even here in South Florida in the winter it can get down into the 50's and on occasion even the 40's and if that happens at all it is often during the overnight hours.

A lof of us consider the 50's as definitely "cool." Further north it can get into the 30's.

Like some others, we have never turned our heat on and given what you might be used to I suspect you'd think the 50's in Winter is actually "warm."

My parents lived in Vero for a long time and I visited. More recently I went back to Florida for a wedding and what I had forgotten was about the "breeze" that always seems to be blowing, rustling the palm fronds. It was a very lovely feeling.